1 posts from November 16, 2013

November 16, 2013

COLUMBIA, SC – I’m in the house here at Williams-Brice Stadium. With Georgia getting shellacked at Auburn, this should be a rowdy nighttime crowd.

Redshirt junior quarterback Tyler Murphy is out stretching, but has yet to throw a pass. I still expect Skyler Morhinweg to make his first-career appearance today. That or we could see a whole-lotta Trey Burton Wild-Gator magic!

***** UPDATE *****

It's official, Morhinweg is the announced starter. Also, junior cornerback Marcus Roberson is suspended for violating team rules.

My pregame teaser…

GAINESVILLE -- No. 11 South Carolina (7-2, 5-2 SEC) has won six of its last seven games, is fresh off an idle date and stars two of the top players -- tailback Mike Davis and defensive end Jadeveon Clowney -- in the Southeastern Conference.

Meanwhile, Florida (4-5, 3-4 SEC) limps into Columbia down to its fourth- and fifth-string offensive tackles and could start a redshirt freshman at quarterback taking his first-career collegiate snap.

This could get ugly -- fast.

Florida and South Carolina square off in prime time Saturday night (7 p.m., ESPN2) in a battle of the ascending versus the fading.

The Gators -- in the midst of their second four-game losing streak in three seasons -- must pull off at least one upset -- over No. 11 USC or No. 2 FSU -- to avoid their first losing season since the Iran hostage crisis (1979).

Embattled head coach Will Muschamp -- who received a public vote of confidence from the UF administration on Wednesday -- called his team “fragile” this week and cited a pervasive “woe-is-me” mentality after the humbling loss to Vanderbilt last Saturday.

“We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to find ways to put our guys in better position, better situations to overcome that,” he said. “The psychological battle of getting our guys in the right situations to be successful. That’s our job as coaches.”

PICKS

Scoreboard: 39-22-2 ATS, 5-4 selecting Florida games

I've been on the road today, so this week’s six-pack single selection: South Carolina (-13.5) vs. Florida. With so much uncertainty at quarterback, I’ll be impressed if Florida scores over 10 points today.